1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to articles of apparel. More particularly, the invention concerns articles of apparel used to cover the wearer's extremities such as an improved, waterproof sock that will permit perspiration to transpire through the sock, but will keep water from external sources away from the wearer's foot.
2. Discussion of the Invention
Various attempts have been made in the past to produce breathable, waterproof articles of apparel such as gloves and socks that will keep the wearer's hands and feet dry and at the same time permit perspiration to transpire through the article. Materials which will accomplish this desired function have been known for sometime. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,953,566 discloses a method of making an expanded polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) that possesses the properties of being both breathable and waterproof. An improvement of this material is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,194,041. While both of these materials have been used in the construction of footwear, they exhibit the drawback that they have limited stretchability, thereby making them less than ideally suited for construction of footwear such as socks. In addition, such footwear typically has sewn seems and tapes which make it bulky and uncomfortable.
In an apparent attempt to overcome the problems discussed in the preceding paragraph, a multi-component sock type article was suggested. This article, which is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,819,447 issued to Pacanowsky, et al., comprises a waterproof, nonelastic, non-stretch sole component, a non-stretch calf component and a vamp component attached to the sole and calf components.
As will be better appreciated from the discussion which follows, the footwear article of the present invention provides, for the first time, footwear such as socks construction which exhibit the comfort and stretchability of a traditional type of sport sock and at the same time are both breathable and completely waterproof.